Believed
by primsgirl89
Summary: Danny was fifteen when she saved a child from drowning, nothing out of the ordinary for her. but the water held something that was deadly to ghosts. It was even worse since she was a half-ghost. "If I die," she gasped to the young child as well as the white-haired spirit next to them, "believe me when I say that I will find a way to protect you all. Believe in me."
1. Two Years Ago

Danny was bound by chains, she felt them on her wrists', ankles, and around her neck. She felt cool metal on her bareback, but why was she without clothes. It didn't make any sense. Blearily, Danny opened her dulled blue eyes to see her number one nemesis on the other side of a glass. He appeared to be talking to someone, but it looked like her in her ghost form. The only difference is this person was a male.

Now she remembered, Vlad made a new clone of her and Danny tried to befriend the other clone so he could see what it was like to feel actual love. But, the clone; who she had begun to call Dan; only made her believe that it was working, so when he told Danny that he wanted out of Vlad's home Danny offered to meet up with him. When they met up, Danny was then caught in a fight with three of his strongest enemies, plus his parents, before being knocked out.

That explains her pain and lack of clothes, but why did she fall for something like that?

"Ah," Vlad hummed when he looked over to see a sleepy-looking Danny, "welcome back, young Danielle."

"Da-Vlad?"

As much as Danny didn't want to admit it, but she thought of Vlad as a more parental figure in the last year than her own parents. When her secret got out six months ago; it was Vlad who comforted her; her own parents had begun to do experiments on Danny. Slowly, Danny didn't see her parents as her parents anymore and moved out on the streets. That was three weeks ago.

Vlad looked at Danny with sad eyes, he had to chain the girl up in case she began to try and cause harm to herself. He knew who had made this clone and he was sickened by how it reminded him of when he created Daniella, but this was far worse. Danny's own parents made this clone, both Dan and Daniella had been offered a place to stay here, but Danielle refused; preferring to travel the world.

"What do you remember, sweetheart," Vlad asked gently as he and Dan walked in the room.

Danny closed her blue eyes, "I remember Skulker, Technus, and Vortex working with my parents when I went to the place Dan offered. We fought. That was all I remember."

Dan crawled on the bed beside Danny with tears sliding down his face, "I am so sorry, Danny, I had to do it otherwise our parents would have killed us."

Confusion washed over Danny as she looked Dan in his green eyes. "What?"

Dan told his story. How he remembered everything that she had done before he was made, how their parents did things to both of them in order to make the perfect clone, only that he was made a male somehow. As Danny listened to Dan she began to feel white-hot anger towards Jack and Maddie Fenton, but that went away when Dan was stopped by Vlad who knew what was going on.

"I couldn't let Dan live like that while you were in a medically induced coma. So when you woke up we decided to let you believe that I made him instead of the Fentons because it would feel more natural to you. You wouldn't be afraid of me since you already went through this with me beforehand."

Danny couldn't help it, "can you unchain me?" When Vlad did, Danny charged at him. Her slim arms wrapped around the older man's waist as she bawled her eyes out. She didn't have a family who wanted her because she was theirs, they only wanted her because she was useful to them. If it hadn't been for Vlad she would have believed that she wasn't loved at all. "I don't want to be Danielle Fenton anymore."

Vlad rested his arms around the malnourished child, he moved to sit on a chair with Danny on his lap. He knew she was hurting, but something felt different to him. "Then who do you want to be?"

"Danielle Masters," Danny looked in Vlads dark blue eyes with her pleading light blue ones, "will you please adopt me?"

"If that is what you wish," Vlad wrapped the shivering girl in a blanket, "then I will make it happen."

Ever since Danny was adopted by Vlad she and Dan had been training with him to get their powers under control. Vlad had sued the Fentons for child abuse, but later for child molestation. The courts took tests and found it was positive that Jack Fenton had allowed a man to rape his own daughter while in a coma, unprotected. Vlad learned of the child when he began to hear another heartbeat in the dining room. At first, he had thought that it was Daniella coming for a visit, but he didn't sense her. He walked closer to Danny when he heard it getting louder. Fear washed over him as he rushed her to the nearest doctor's office with a panic only to have his suspicions confirmed.

Jack Fenton was a dead man, but Madeline Fenton was just as shocked as Vlad was and began to yell at him at first, but then she began to ask questions to Vlad very excitably. It wasn't long before she began to beg for her daughter back, she went as far as to use her body to try and get him to cave, but his feelings for her were long gone.

When the courts asked if there was a foster home available for Danny to live in Vlad stopped them and said he would be adopting the girl. It was odd, Danny was fine around everyone and showed no fear towards her parents. Dan, on the other hand, hid behind her whenever they were around. The court allowed both Dan and Danny to live with Vlad, as long as he got Danny regular appointments for the child growing inside of Danny. As if he needed to be told that.

Now, five months later, no one other than the house of halfa's knew about halfa's existing. Or at least in the human realm. Sam and Tucker still knew, but they moved away a year ago and it had hurt Danny greatly.

"Daddy," Danny came flying in his Vlads room, Dan and Daniella right behind her, "it's time."

He knew what that meant as he zoomed about the room getting everything ready for his daughter. Dan and Daniella helped keep Danny calm as they packed things up. Once everything was set it was in the car they went, all in human form, to the hospital. On December twenty-first of two-thousand-ten, a little girl was born. Danny looked at the child with raven hair and foggy gray eyes thinking this child was the most beautiful she had ever seen her.

"Daddy," Daniella gasped, "look. She is so squishy." Danny had allowed her to hold the baby so she could sleep.

"What is her name, sweetheart," Vlad asked as he sat on the hospital bed brushing Danny's long raven locks out of her face.

"Winter Lee Masters," Danny yawned with a small smile.

Soon she was asleep to recover from the labor that Winter had given her.

"Did she realize that today was the start of Winter," Dan asked with mild amusement as he played with his niece.

"That is something we will have to ask her."


	2. Death

Death wasn't easy as others had thought originally. There is a lot of pain involved, a different type of pain. The phrase _my life flashed before my eyes _isn't just a phrase, it's literally what happens when a person dies. They feel everything that they had ever felt at once, every small thing from feeling sad to the most painful bone break.

So as Danny saw a boy with snow-white hair with crystal blue eyes near a lake with blood blossoms floating about in the water, she felt he wasn't human; but he wasn't a ghost either. His skin was pale from what she saw from his face and feet, she could also tell he was a lean guy. He wore a blue hoodie, frost collecting around the ring of the collar with light brown pants. She began to wonder who he was and why he was alone in the woods.

Slowly, so she wouldn't startle him, she walked down the lake. Her hand had to keep moving her bangs from her face as the wind made it keep going in her eyes. When she reached him she sat beside him and looked out to the lake beside him, maybe he would speak his mind. They sat in silence for about ten minutes, Danny was ready to break the silence when he looked at her.

"I bet you can't hear or see me either," he mumbled. His hand then reached out and touched her shoulder.

"I bet I can," she said as she gave a small smile towards him. "I was hoping you were okay since you don't seem to be either ghost nor human."

Grabbing his hand, she noticed that he seemed shell-shocked, she then pulled him towards her so he could feel she knew he was there.

"You can see me," he asked breathlessly. When she nodded his hand pushed back his hair as he got on his knees to look her in the face, "you can hear me?"

"Yes," Danny whispered lightly. She wanted to be uncomfortable, but she just found it cute. "Why wouldn't I?"

Then the boy introduced himself as Jack Frost, the spirit of winter. She felt bad that he was only able to be seen by children who believed, yet no one believed in him. When she asked how he became the spirit of winter he told her he didn't know, but he asked how she could see him.

"When I was thirteen, the two who birthed me made a portal to a world called the ghost zone. They had tried to turn it on, but when it failed I wanted to know why. I thought they overlooked something, but it turned out that the power button was on the inside, so when my hand accidentally hit it I was then changed. My body absorbed the ectoplasm and fused with my DNA making me able to do this."

Danny stood up and transformed herself into Danny Phantom. Instead of a girl with long dark raven hair and baby blue eyes a girl with snow-white hair and glowing green eyes. Her outfit was no longer a white t-shirt with a red oval and blue jeans, it was now a black hazmat suit with white gloves, belt, and boots. On the chest was a cute design that had a _D _with a _P in the_ middle.

Jack looked at her with awe as he stood up, his staff in his hand, and floated up towards her. "Whoa."

"I think my ghost side helps me see spirits."

There was a red mist that began to come off of the blood blossoms, when Danny saw this she rushed away from the lake, Jack close behind her. He called out to her to slow down and to wait for him when she was a mile away from the flowers she plopped herself on a frozen river. Her breathing was short and forced making it hard for her to breathe, had she been there for any longer she knew she would have been in much worse condition than she was now.

Blood blossoms react whenever a ghost is near, but when she is in her human form she is able to be around the flowers with no trouble. "Hey! What the heck was that about?"

"I forgot the blood blossoms were there, ghosts' are highly allergic to them, you could say."

Nodding Jack sat by Danny as she slowly regained her breathing, she then told him all about her powers and her life. She trusted Jack, for some reason. It wasn't like he would tell anyone else about this that could expose her, right? For the next few months, they made it a weekly routine to meet up at the lake they had met at.

Things were going well, Jack and Danny often would be found laughing and joking about anything and everything. She even brought Winter to meet Jack, along with her family, but only she seemed to be the only one able to see the winter spirit. Danny's family began to grow worried about her health on seeing someone that they couldn't, not Winter though since she was only a few months old.

In their fifth month of this, things took a turn for the worse. A portal opened up sucking up both Jack and Danny into Clockworks castle in the ghost zone, but he was only there to tell Jack that he was to leave the next day.

"You're leaving," Danny asked in a whimper.

Jack turned to look Danny in her blue eyes with sorrow in his own, "I don't actually belong in this world..."

Sadness hit her as she flung herself at the winter spirit, "I don't care! Please don't leave me..."

Clockwork shifted into an old man as he watched his favorite being break at the thought of losing her closest friend. It wouldn't be the first time, but he made her feel normal and it wasn't something that Clockwork saw in the girl too often. He remembered when she asked to see how her friends were doing after giving birth, he saw the betrayal and the deep pain that she held in her eyes. He was astonished however that she took it as if it were just a grain of salt.

Those two friends had been talking bad about Danny in the town they now lived in, but that wasn't what bothered her. It was when they called her a freak of nature and they were happy to be rid of her in their lives.

Jack held her close even though he will go back to being invisible to everyone else. Even being disliked by the other spirits was better than being ignored, so he will miss the hugs that Danny will give him. "I want to spend my last moments being with my best friend."

"Stupid," Danny mumbled into his hoodie, "I am your only friend."

"And that is why you're my best friend."

They smiled at one another as they were then transported back to the lake once more. Clockwork looked at one of the many screens before making a call to an old friend of his.

"Danny Phantom will become the new spirit of Halloween," he spoke into his cane, "let's make the preparations."

With Danny and Jack, they were near the lake once more when a cry sounded from the other end of the forest. Transforming into her alter-ego the two flew to the sound to find a boy drowning in the lake. She didn't think when she shoved herself in the cold water, accidentally ingesting a blood blossom, to save the child.

Ignoring the pain as much as she could she flew them out of the water and on the land, Jack rushed over to her side after making sure the child was okay. His hand phased threw the boy, so he focused on his friend. She was losing so much color that she looked like an ashy green. Her vibrant green eyes soon became duller.

Jack knew she was dying and he hated that he couldn't do anything. How could this have happened? Why did no one believe in him? He could have prevented this if someone believed in him.

"Danny?"

"If I die," she gasped to the young child as well as the white-haired spirit next to them, "believe me when I say that I will find a way to protect you all. Believe in me."

The child ran away not even looking back as he ran home to tell his mother that he was saved by Danny Phantom, who died doing so. Jack wanted to be angry, but children are humans who do what one doesn't expect. He grabbed ahold of her hand, noticing for once it was colder than normal, "I will always believe in you, Danny."

"It hurts, Jack," she finally sobbed. Her body was being ripped apart by the blood blossoms, "maybe if you let me in the water, I could wake up like you one day."

"You don't want to be like me," Jack sniffed, "it's a lonely world I live in."

"But, I won't be alone if I have you there with me," she said hoarsely. Was it hot or was it just her? "You wouldn't either if I were like you. We would be friends forever."

Weakly she raised her hand, it felt like fire was in her veins and it burned, with her pinky out. A goofy smile raised on her lips. Once more a green portal sucked the two of them up, where they landed Jack knew very well. He was in Burgess, specifically at the pond he had woken up from when the Man in the Moon said he was Jack Frost over three hundred years ago.

"This is where I was created," Jack said to Danny, "I rose from the ice that covered this very pond. I learned about my powers and about my name, I soon came to be known by the other guardians as the rebel."

The moon began to glow brightly as it shone right on Danny as she took her final breath. Jack had not noticed as he began to sob over her frail body, his only friend just died and it hurt so much. He laid beside her for a long time before he noticed that she was beginning to glow herself. Her hair shimmered into the snow-white color that she had when she was in her ghost form. Could this mean that she was now a spirit like him?

_Watch over Danny Phantom, Jack Frost, _Jack heard the man in the moon say to him. Her body floated back down when the moon went away, but she was still unconscious.


	3. Spirit of Halloween

**Before this chapter, I want to clarify that I know that this idea had been overused, but I promise that this will be different, so please bear with me. Her last memory doesn't mean she remembers her family or her daughter. The only memories she truly has are of Jack Frost and the child she saved.**

When she opened her eyes the first thing she saw was a glowing moon, the moon gave a cool touch from the light. It felt as though the moon was speaking to her, for when she sat up to get a closer look at the moon she heard a gentle voice. It sounded childlike, so it was hard to know if the voice was a male or female.

_You are Danny Phantom, the spirit of Halloween. Protect the children of the world as well as the one known as Jack Frost. _

Who was this Jack Frost person? As if answering her, memories flooded her mind showing her the times she had spent with Jack. Was she his friend? One particular memory stuck out to her the most though, it was her strongest and her last memory.

_Danny knew she was dying and she was okay with that. She was glad she wasn't alone and she died doing something good. A child was saved, her sacrifice would not be in vain. _

_"Danny?" Danny looked over to see Jack looking down at her with worry, fear, and tears in his eyes. She saw the guilt and self-hatred in those bright blue eyes, she hated that look, but she needed to address the child first. _

_"If I die," she gasped to the young child as well as the white-haired spirit next to her, "believe me when I say that I will find a way to protect you all. Believe in me."_

_The child ran away not even looking back as he ran home to tell his mother that he was saved by Danny Phantom, who died doing so. She smiled a small smile, it was sad that she wouldn't be able to watch her own daughter grow up, but she was also disturbingly happy. It wasn't every day that she would die next to someone who cared. Jack grabbed ahold of her hand, noticing for once it was warmer to her than normal, "I will always believe in you, Danny."_

_His hand began to burn her, but inside her body was where the pain was the worse. Jack's words brought her to let her emotions run free from the wall she hid them behind. _

_"It hurts, Jack," she finally sobbed. Her body was being ripped apart by the blood blossoms, "maybe if you let me in the water, I could wake up like you one day."_

_She would be surrounded by the dark waters, she could hide. She wanted to be a pearl in a clam again, to be hidden until she was summoned. What would the odds be of becoming a spirit like Jack?_

_"You don't want to be like me," Jack sniffed, "it's a lonely world I live in."_

_"But, I won't be alone if I have you there with me," she said hoarsely. Was it hot or was it just her? "You wouldn't either if I were like you. We would be friends forever."_

_Weakly she raised her hand, it felt like fire was in her veins and it burned, with her pinky out. A goofy smile raised on her lips. _

"Hey, snowflake," that familiar voice spoke beside her. Her head whipped to face him with a wide smile on her face.

"Jack!" Her arms wrapped him in a hug choking the spirit of winter. For the first time in his three hundred years of life, Jack felt happy to not be truly alone. Sure, he walked among the humans, but they can't see him or anything, then there are the other spirits. The others don't even like him around because he distracts them from their work, or he accidentally ruins their holidays.

"Hey, now, Danny," Jack chuckled. "Want to see the world with me?"

"Yes!"

**A year later.**

As they traveled the world Danny had come to learn that she was able to be seen on Halloween; by everyone; or if somebody believed in her. When she helped a child allowed themselves to stand up to their mother, she had told the child to not allow fear to hold them back from telling their mother from being an alcoholic and she needed help. That night Danny checked in on the kid; Jack followed her; only to learn that the child was able to see her.

Danny remembered trying to get her to believe in Jack Frost, but the child believed that she was just using ice magic to fool her. It wasn't the last time that Danny tried to get children that sees her to also believe in Jack, but it never worked. After the third time, Jack told Danny to forget about it.

"I don't like that kids can see only me and not you. It isn't fair to you," Danny whined.

"Snowflake," Jack sighed, "I decided I wanted to get them to believe in me my way."

They were quiet for a while as Jack made it snow in Russia when Jack grabbed her hand and told the wind to take them home. The place they both woke up when they became a spirit; the two were heading to Burgess.

"Jack," Danny hugged the winter spirit, "I have to go to the palace to see Ella."

"You mean the one with the many bullies?" Jack thought harder, "or the one who has a huge crush on some kid with kind of the same looks as me?"

Giggling at Jack Danny left without answering his questions. She had things to do. On the other side of the Bennett's house, she was a small girl who has a crush on Jamie Bennett but she was too frightened to get the courage to tell him how she feels. That wasn't the fear she was working on though. Ella was afraid of being anywhere close to Jamie, but she somehow felt Ella reminded her of herself somehow. She doesn't quite know exactly how, but Ella just does.

As she got to Ella she saw that she was actually talking with Jamie and his friends about Easter as they were going out of the yard, but she was surprised to see Jack near them talking to them. Not that the kids knew that.

Danny was proud of Ella for talking to her crush, but she felt kind of bad that Jack was still inviable to the kids. Though, at least people used his name when the weather was really cold.

"Who is Jack Frost," Jamie asked his mother, confusion was on both Ella and Jamie's face as they looked at Misses Bennett.

"No one, hun, it's just a saying."

Jack took offense to it and made a snowball and throwing it at the back of Jamie's head. Laughter bubbled up and passed his lips as he began an actual snowball fight with the other kids. Danny wanted to stay, but when she saw Jack something inside her broke. She wasn't a stranger to feeling the things she does when it came to Jack, but that doesn't mean she acted on them.

Often she would just go away and make her way towards the roof of Jamie's home, tears in her eyes as she allowed the choking feeling of her crush to weigh her down. Jack was a spirit who enjoyed having fun, he wouldn't want a romantic relationship. She understood his desire to be seen by the children, but she was his best friend and she wanted to help him in any way she could. Even if it meant that she ignored her feelings.

"I hate these feelings," Danny mumbled to herself. "I should just be happy being his friend, but I can't help but feel the desire to be something more to him."

"To who," Jack asked as he sat down on the house with Danny.

"No one you need to know about, Jack," Danny mumbled into her elbow.

"He does if he is making you cry," Jack said lowly. His arm wrapped itself around her shoulders as he forced her to lay her head on his shoulder. "You've been alone for a long time, so long in fact that it's nine at night."

Danny shrugged, she wasn't actually needed as a spirit until Halloween when the dead come forward and ask for her to relay a message to their family. What was Danny meant to do in this world? Was she really even a spirit if she can be seen by all on Halloween? Why did Manny even choose her if she wasn't even from this world? Jack had told her of her being already half-dead before she became the spirit of Halloween and it became apparent that she had all of her original powers. She loved her duplication because she could make millions of herself to help everyone on Halloween.

Golden streams of dream sand flew about the sky, Jack stood and reached for it letting a dolphin come to life from the sand. A small rope flew over her head. When her hand reached it she saw an image of her kissing Jack, panicked she quickly destroyed it before Jack saw it. Sadly, the imaged changed to something lewd, but the good thing was that Jack had his hood covering his face so Jack wasn't able to tell who it was.

_Damnit, Sandy, _Danny cursed in her mind. Why did sand show what she wanted deep down? Sighing, Danny looked up with a red blush at Jack who was looking around him.

"Jack," Danny called out.

"I just heard something," he mumbled to her. He refused to look back since he got a glimpse of what the dream sand created for Danny. "Change into Phantom and we will check it out."

Obeying his word, she stood up and allowed the rings to change her into her more alter-ego before grabbing Jack's hand. "Let's go."

Jack didn't want to use the wind, so he told her to fly them to an abandoned lot. Danny wasn't easily afraid, but since she was kind of lost in her thought she jumped when she heard another voice; it was Australian. She looked towards an alley to see her second favorite spirit.

"Jack," Danny squealed in joy, "it's the Easter bunny!"

Jack gave her a small smirk, but it went away when the bunny gave a smirk of his own. "Been a long time, mate. Blizzard of sixty-eight, I believe. Easter Sunday, wasn't it?"

Bunny had stepped away from the shadows as he glared at Jack, Danny just looked between the two spirits in confusion.

Although Jack was proud of that accidental blizzard, he couldn't forget the fact that Bunny seemed to be giving _his _Danny the look. He hates it when others look at Danny like that, especially boys. "Bunny! You're not still mad about that, are ya?

"You ruined Easter," Danny asked in mock shame. Bunny didn't seem to notice as he gave Jack a smirk as if he won a prize, but it left him when Danny spoke up again. "You ruined Easter without me!"

"To be fair," Jack smiled gently as he wrapped an arm around her waist, "you were here, nor a spirit, yet." Danny shrugged with a loving smile.

"'Ello? Right here!"

"Oh, you're still here," Danny asked as she hugged Jack. His cold body was soothing to her.

"Yes," Bunny said angrily, but he then turned to Jack, "I am still angry about that, but this is about something else. Fellas?"

Two yetis popped up behind the two white-haired teens. Suddenly, Jack and Danny were trapped in a sack bringing the two closer than they were a moment ago. Danny's eyes gave enough light for both to see the other had a huge blush on their face. "Hey!"

Both said the same thing at the same time, but the next thing they knew was that they were twisting and twirling in odd angles yet it didn't hurt. Rather it just made them dizzy. When they were still, they took a moment to gain a steady feeling once again before they got out of the sack.

They heard soft whispering, but someone with a Russian accent spoke up, "He's here! Quiet!" Jack popped his head out first with a bemused expression on his face. "There he is. Jack Frost."

" Wow... You gotta be kidding me," the same yetis before picked the boy up to help him out of the sack. "Hey hey! Put me down!"

They released him, he picked up his staff for a moment before looking around more. Danny was still in the sack trying to gain her vision back.

"I hope the Yetis treated you well," Jack recognized the man in red as North- or more commonly known as Santa.

"Oh yeah, I love being shoved in a sack and tossed through a magic portal," Jack grumped sarcastically.

Not noticing the sarcasm North laughed heartily, "Oh. Good! That was my idea."

Danny crawled out of the bag with a green tinge to her face, "well I don't."

Silence filled the room before North turned to Bunny with a glare on his face before giving the same glare towards the yetis. "Who is this?"

"Danny," Jack murmured amused as he helped his friend out of the sack. "You okay, Snowflake?"

Danny leaned on Jack, allowing her forehead to rest on his shoulder, "I will be."

Nodding his head Jack looked around the room to see that all of the other spirits were looking at Danny with mixed expressions. Most confused, others just looking at her with wonder. North then introduced the two to the other spirits.

"You know Bunny," North pointed to Bunny who was twirling his boomerang around.

"Obviously," Danny heard Jack growl.

"And the Tooth Fairy," before he could finish the sentence Tooth had zoomed forward to look into both teens' eyes with uncontrolled excitement.

"Hello, Jack and Danny! I've heard a lot about you, and your teeth!"

Confused the two spoke in unison, "my what?"

"Open up! Are they really as white as they say?" Her hands opened Jack's mouth wide open only to get both Danny and Jack muttering profanities. "Yes- Oh! Oh, they really do sparkle like freshly fallen snow." She then went towards Danny and did the same exact thing. "Her too!"

Danny never was one for letting many getting close to her, so she bit Tooth's finger making her yelp in pain. "Can you stay away from my face?"

Danny went pale as she hid behind Jack with discomfort. Something about letting someone so close to her face made her uncomfortable. Jack felt her shivering, so he turned around and gave her a strong hug to show he was here. The two soon forgot the others were in the room as well. His lips lightly grazed her temple as he spoke soothing words.

Somehow, it was only Jack who was able to get as close to her without getting hurt in some way or another. "She was too close..."

"She isn't now. I am," Jack said with an easy smirk. "Want me to be close to that mouth of yours?"

Making a blank stare Danny shoved Jack away, her cheek green from embarrassment as she felt butterflies fluttering in her chest. "Only if you make me want it."

A clearing of a throat made them focus back on the group before them. The little round golden man had made Danny giggle as he soon began to fall asleep standing up. "This is Sandman or Sandy. Sandy?" Groaning North shook the man awake.


	4. Jack? A Guardian?

Jack looked at all of the guardians with bemusement, his staff resting in one hand and the other holding Danny close to him. Danny glared at the other spirits with distrust. If a person is willing to fo through the trouble of kidnapping, or in their case sacking, two teens it means that they want something. She probably would have trusted them had they not sacked them, but it's too late now.

The room was uncomfortably silent, even more with the glare that Danny was throwing their way. Finally, Jack looked them in the face with a goofy look, but Danny smacked him on the head. "Woah! Hey!" Jack looked at her with a small glare, but she gave him a look that told him to take this seriously. Sighing he looked at the others in the room, "anyone wanna tell us why we're here?"

Stepping away from his best friend, Jack gently flicked his staff to freeze an elf; who was sneaking a cookie. " We must've done something really bad to get you four together," Danny used a small blast of her ectoplasm to hit Jack's butt. "- Wha-Oh come on! Just this once?" Danny sighed, it wasn't any use since he is a natural goofball so she sighed with a wave of her hand.

"You have the floor," she said with a soft growl. With a cheerful smirk, Jack looked at North.

"Are we on the Naughty List?"

North, being able to gain his senses shook his head, and gave a jolly laugh as if he was amused. He kind of was though, with the memories of when North had to put his foot down from wanting to place Jack on the nice list, Jack held the record for the naughty list. What can the spirit of Christmas say? He liked the pranks Jack pulled, but he tends to get carried away, well at least until last year. Somehow Jack's pranks had changed enough where not many kids ended up hurt.

"Hah," North laughed lightly as the memories came and went. "On Naughty List? Jack, you hold the record," a stern fatherly glare on his slightly wrinkled face. "But! No matter, we overlook. Now we are wiping clean the slate."

As he answered Jack he wiped his hand on his arm, the one that said naughty, as if cleaning dirt off of it. Danny found the older man to be odd, but she lost some of her glare after seeing that the spirits weren't going to do them any harm. She wondered if she was on the naughty list, but she can't think if she had done anything truly bad. Slowly Danny transformed back into her _human _self as Jack says it is, she felt no need to be in Phantom form since no one seemed to want to do them harm.

Somehow, she felt that if someone kidnapped her it was mainly for the need of something she has the power to do, but then again. Why would she have ever been captured in the first place? What would the need be?

"How come," Jack asked in confusion. Why didn't he answer him about Danny?

Danny and Bunny looked at Jack than to North, "good question."

One was said sarcastically as the other was genuine confusion. Icy blue eyes locked on to the overly large bunny in the room. "Jack?"

"Snowflake?"

"If you need me," Danny growled out, "I'll be anywhere where there isn't an overly sized idiot."

Jack would have tried to convince her to stay, but she disappeared on him and he knew that she flew away. Just great. His best friend decided to leave him with the kangeroo and the other guardians. Jack glared at Bunny, "way to go, you made her leave."

Danny was so angry at that stupid bunny. Just who was he to be so rude to one of the nicest people on this planet? Sure, she could understand that Jack accidentally ruined his holiday, but that was almost fifty years ago. Bunny made her feel slightly threatened as if he would become Jack's new best friend and making her be alone all over again.

She flew back to Burgess to see Ella, in the only form she might be able to see her as. She could transform into a black cat with warm blue eyes, but it took a lot of concentration for her to be able to change into this form. It might have to deal with the fact that she never really changed into this form much as she only used this form four times since becoming a spirit.

As it turned out, Ella was with Jamie staying the week with him since her parents had a business meeting in New York City. Ella wasn't with her parents much since they worked a lot of the time, but when they were home they didn't really do anything with her. It's as if Ella doesn't exist to her parents and the thought saddens Danny.

Sneaking into the room both children were in, Danny walked over towards Ella and curled up on her side with a gentle nuzzle of her head. The poor child was trembling from a bad dream, it must be awful if she was sweating as much as she was, her curly brown hair clung to her face with her ragged breathing. Slowly, it was as if the dream was changing as she clung to Danny even more, a small smile moving to her face. Danny was absorbing the fear as well as replacing it with something less frightening.

Black sand hit her on her pink nose, what was sand doing here? Was this what was giving the child fear? Was that what was making Jamie also become the way he is? Jamie was also beginning to do as Ella once was. She needed to do something for him as well, so she spread her powers over to him, seeing more black sand fall to the floor. Now she was suspicious.

Back with Jack, they had just told him he was chosen by the man in the moon that he was to be the new guardian, but that infuriated him. How could he speak with these people about his destiny and not him? He only ever told him to watch over Danny and who he was as well as what he was meant to do. In all of his three hundred years of life, this is how he responds to his pleas?

"W-Why, why wouldn't he tell me that himself," Jack groaned as he shifts his hand in his hair. "After three hundred years, this is his answer? To spend eternity like you guys, cooped up in some- some hideout, thinking of- of new ways to bribe kids?" Where was Danny when he needed her level-headedness? "No, no, that's not for me! I am not going to leave Danny all alone. No offense."

"How- how- How is that not offensive? You know what I think, I- I think we just dodged a bullet. I mean what's this clown know about bringing joy to children anyway?"

Miffed, Jack scoffed, "Uh, you ever hear of a snow day? I know it's no... hardboiled egg, but kids like what I do."

Actually, they like what Danny does more, but Bunny didn't need to know that. Yet.

Bunny growled lowly as he tried to think of a comeback, but the perfect one came to him, he might regret it later but oh well. Tooth will scold him later for it for sure. "But none of 'em believe in ya. Do they? Y' see, you're invisible, mate - it's like you don't even exist."

"Bunny! Enough!" He was right. Tooth did scold him, but she will do more than that when they are alone. She hated seeing the pain come to life on Jack's face, but not as much as when she saw the victorious smirk on Bunnymund's face.

"No," Jack smirked once the pain dulled into an ache at the mention of not being believed in, "the kangaroo is right."

Flabbergasted, Bunny's nose twitched wildly as he tried to calm himself to reply. " The- the what? What'd you call me? I'm not a kangaroo, mate."

"Oh? And this whole time Danny and I thought you were," he misses Danny now. "If you're not a kangaroo, then what are you?"

" I'm a bunny. The Easter Bunny. People believe in me," the two glared at the other. "You and your girlfriend aren't even close to being believed in. Neither of you is meant to be."

Danny felt a shiver through her spine, something wasn't right. There was too much fear around this town. It was suffocating, but she couldn't do much without finding the source, perhaps she could make little helpers as they fly around the world to help her in case this is happening in other places, but she has to remove herself first. Forget it, she was comfortable.

Danny focused on her powers and made millions of little black cats with glowing green or blue eyes. _Release the fear from the children, _even with the message as vague as it was Danny knew her message was clear to the cats. The power of fear should help keep the cats with enough power to get rid of the kids who were having nightmares around the world.

Drained from the use of her powers Danny allowed herself to drift off into a peaceful sleep, allowing the small bit of her power to fight off that odd black sand. Danny slept for about twenty minutes before she had a bad feeling involving Jack. Was he in danger?

Rushing to get up Danny rushed back to the north pole finding that the others were getting ready to leave.

"Jack!"

"Danny?"

"Something is wrong with the kids in Burgess, but I did a temporary fix. I just woke up having a bad feeling."

Jack looked at her messy hair, he found it was adorable. Bunny, having overheard the conversation hopped beside Jack. "What do you mean about the kids?"

"Black sand seems to be giving kids horrible nightmares," Danny said tiredly. She fell forward, her power dangerously low, "I'm so...tired."

Once more Danny fell unconscious into Jack's waiting arms. "You did it again, Snowflake."

"What was that about?"

Jack glanced at Bunny as he flew Danny to sit next to Sandy, "back when we met as she was still semi alive, she told me she would overdo it with her powers. Ending up as she is now."

"What do you mean semi alive," Bunny asked, "no human would have powers."

"She was half-ghost."

The conversation ended there as they all got on to the sleigh. Jack never thought that Bunny would be afraid of flying had he not seen the way he was acting, but for the moment he needed to help Danny with her powers. His arm was wrapped around her, with power flowing from his hand into her, he learned that his powers help her quite a bit.

When Danny woke up she was left alone in the sleigh. Groggily, she got up and looked around finding herself in an overly colorful palace. As beautiful as it was she needed to find Jack and warn him about the black sand. Or did she do that already?

Ugh, it hurts to think. Actually, she hurts all over. It reminded her of the time she and Jack drove a car, well Jack drove as she screamed for Manny to save them.

Slowly, Danny got out of the sleigh and towards where a pull was taking her. Did Jack steer the sleigh? Whatever. She has to focus. As she followed the pull she was led to the other guardians who were discussing how they would help the Toothfairy collect teeth. "What is going on?"

Tooth flew over towards Danny with worry, checking her over.

"You were swallowed in Pitches Nightmare sand," she said lowly, "are you okay?"

"I feel fine," Danny said pushing Tooth away from her as gentle as possible. "The only thing I feel like was when I let Jack drive a car. I woke in the sleigh feeling that exact pain."

Jack blushed as he stepped forward, "sorry, Snowflake, but North handed me the reigns."

"That explains it," Danny giggled. Her attention went to the situation she had on her mind. "There is black sand that seems to be giving kids nightmares, could it be this nightmare sand?"

"We don't know," Bunny said as he hopped over, "we just came face to face with it a moment ago, so we know nothin' about it."

Danny nodded and looked back at Jack, "so what was it they wanted you for?"

Smirking at her, Jack wrapped his arm around his best friend, "apparently, Manny thought to make me a guardian."

"You," Danny asked blankly. Jack nodded, "yeah, no offense but you would make a terrible guardian. You prefer snowballs and fun times, not hard work and deadlines."

The guardians looked between the two once more, but this time with smirks on their faces. Those two were made for each other.

"You know me so well," Jack deadpanned. "I said the same thing, but I didn't say I would be terrible at it. Just that I don't want the spot."

Rolling her eyes she turned to the others Baby Tooth flew to sit in her hoodie pocket in preference to her warm body instead of Jack's cold one. Jack didn't take offense to it as he smiled when Danny spoke, "well, let's collect teeth."


	5. Pitch Black

"Wanna bet they forget to give a quarter," Danny spoke to the small fairy that sat on her hoodie. Danny watched as the guardians, plus Jack, try to collect the teeth with Baby Tooth; she found it honestly amusing. Faintly she glared at the man dressed in red, she had nothing against him personally, but she just strongly disliked him. Baby Tooth chirped amusedly at Danny, but Danny couldn't understand the little fairy. A chill went down her spine, a familiar chill. It was a chill of fear.

"Sorry Baby Tooth," Danny stood up quickly, "but a child needs me."

As gently as possible, Danny placed the fairy on a billboard, where Jack was sure to pop out from. Her body went invisible as she followed the trail of fear towards Jamie's room, she saw Ella was laying on the floor in a cold sweat. Changing into her physical form, Danny hopped on the young girl.

Her fluffy fur stood on end from the amount of fear she was feeling from Ella, she had to fix this somehow. If not, it could attract the wrong type of spirit. Closing her eyes, Danny placed her paw on Ella's forehead, the fear making her stronger. Static was the best was to explain what she heard and saw before she dove deeper when the images became more clear.

_"You," Danny heard a female voice say in the darkness, "you are the reason why I am so miserable. My own child, a fucking mistake, is forcing me to stay with the man I hate the most." _

_Some glass shattered near Danny, but it wasn't aimed where Danny was. Images became clearer and Danny saw Ella on the floor with her mother over her with a sharp half-broken bottle of pure vodka dripping with blood. Ella's blood. _

_Danny heard whimpering from behind her, slowly Danny turned to find Ella in a cage where she was forced to watch what was happening. _

_"No, Mommy, I love you. Stop, it hurts." _

_Danny broke at the desperation in her voice. Slowly, she moved to the cage with her hands on the bars, "Ella." _

_Ella turned to look at Danny with watery green eyes, fear consuming them. "Who...who are you?" _

_"I am Danny Phantom, the spirit of Halloween," hopefully her helpers were helping the children as she was. "I help with facing your fears." _

_Ella bit her lip as if she didn't believe her. Danny smiled as she walked over towards her mother, changing the image to Ella playing with the other kids that day. "You faced you slight fear of talking to Jamie today, I am so proud of you, Ella." _

_Ella's cage slowly began to fade, she was still holding on to the fear that kept her there. So Danny changed the image of Ella with her mother just before her parents left for the business trip. In the image Ella and her mother were looking at all the cats in the cat cafe, both females looking as happy as can be. _

_"Ella," her mother called to her daughter, "is there a kitty that you like?" __Ella picked up the full black kitten with one green eye and one blue eye. Ella's mother smiled at her daughter and went to the owner of the cafe, a moment later she came back with a bright blue collar. "Let's go home, with Luna." _

_"She still loves you, Ella," Danny said soothingly, "she just needs to get help to keep her from drinking as much as she does." _

_"Okay." _

When Danny opened her eyes she realized that she wasn't the only spirit in the room anymore. Jack and the guardians' were panicking over the now awake Jamie. Changing back into her human appearance, she glared at the others in the room.

"What the actual frost is going on here," Danny hissed. Jamie flashed his flashlight towards her, but she didn't notice. She also didn't notice that Ella woke up to the sound of her hiss. "You all woke up a child, maybe not Sandy."

Jack rose his hands in the air in surrender, "snowflake..."

"Don't you _snowflake _me, Jack Frost," Danny bit as her finger pressed firmly into his shoulder. "These kids, all the kids in the world, are having nightmares caused by some black sand. They need rest and here you are, all of you, waking these kids up. For what? Teeth?"

The others looked down with deep guilt, Danny had a point.

Danny sighed and walked over towards Ella, surprised to see she was looking right at her. "Who were you talking to?"

"You can't see them," Danny asked with a flinch. Ella shook her head as she looked around the room in search of the people Danny had been yelling at. "Well, I was talking to Santa, the Sandman, the Toothfairy, the Easter Bunny, and Jack Frost."

Ella looked at Danny with confusion, "but they don't exist. Mommy said so."

Danny smiled sadly at Ella, "then I also don't exist. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there."

Nodding, Ella frowned and moved towards the bed with Jamie, accidentally stepping on Abby's tail. As soon as the greyhound saw it was only Ella getting into bed with Jamie, she looked in front of her to see all of the others in the room. Although, she seemed extra focused on Bunny if the growling and staring was anything to go by.

"No stop, that's the Easter Bunny," Jamie panicked. "What're you doing, Abby? Down!"

"Alright, nobody panic," Bunny said with a slight quiver in his tone. He was obviously afraid and beginning to panic.

Danny felt like Bunny didn't really know what he would be getting himself into, "But that's a, uhm, that's a greyhound."

Bunny looked at her confused and slightly annoyed. This was supposed to be his time to shine, but Danny was ruining it for him. Jack smirked as he looked at Bunny and Danny. This should be fun.

"Do you know what greyhounds do to rabbits," Jack asked as his eyes held mischief.

"Well, I think it's a pretty safe bet he's never met a rabbit, like me," Bunny said as Sandy preps a ball of Dream-sand. "Six-foot-one, nerves of steel, Master of Tai Chi, and," Danny tried to stop Jack, but she wasn't fast enough. Jack used his staff to hit Jamie's alarm clock, startling Abby making her begin to bark while lunging forward. "Crikey! Ahh!"

Chaos ensued. Ella and Jamie held back Abby, though Ella was confused as to what was happening, but Abby was much stronger than the two children and broke out of their grip. Bunny began to bounce around the room, trying to stay away from the greyhound. "Stop," Jamie cried as he tried to help, "slow down!"

Abby bumped into Sandy, making him lose control of the ball of dream sand that began to hit everyone in the room, all but the intended targets. "Candy...canes," North slurred before falling on Jamie's bed.

Jamie and Ella flew in the air. Sandy was able to catch Jamie as Ella was caught by Danny. Sandy nodded his head down at Jamie making him fall asleep before tossing some sand towards Ella making her also fall asleep. The two placed the kids back on the bed, though Danny removed North from the bed and placed Abby back on the foot of the bed.

Jack watched from the sidelines as he began to chuckle, "Oh I really wish I had a camera right now."

While Sandy only gave him a side glance Danny glared at the winter spirit. "That could have woken up the adults."

Jack smirked, "but it didn't."

Just as Danny was about to say something the door opened to find Misses Bennett looking in the room. Her brown eyes showed absolute confusion as he walked over to the knocked out greyhound. "What was all the ruckus about?"

She then shook her head and picked up the dog to bring her in her own room.

"You were saying," Danny hissed at Jack. Jack hated being yelled at by Danny because she was good at it. Probably had to do with the fact that she was a mother. He felt bad now, but he still found it funny.

A figure made out of black sand moved away from the windowsill, catching Jack's attention as well as Sandy's. Danny glared at the retreating sand figure, that sand was the cause of so much fear. She hadn't noticed that the other two had followed behind her; all she cared about was finding where this sand was coming from. Danny protected children and some times adults from their fears by facing them. Something whipped her on the back of her neck making her fall out of the sky. Her vision swam in black. Pitch black.

She knew what was the cause of this black sand. Or more accurately, whom. Pitch Black the embodiment of fear and nightmares.


End file.
